O'Hagan, Jack, 1898-1987

Composer, lyricist, pianist and songwriter. John Francis (Jack) O'Hagan was born in Melbourne in 1898 and began his musical career as a "song-plugger" at Allan's music store. O'Hagan worked as a broadcaster in radio in Melbourne and utilised radio and recording to promote his reputation as a songwriter and composer. His compositions included popular songs (including his best-known, "Along the road to Gundagai"), scores for silent films, dance music, music for stage shows and later, advertising jingles. O'Hagan published under his own name as well as a number of pseudonyms, including Dean Flintoft, Wilson Jeffreys, John Quinlan, Pamela Terese, Ferguson Noakes, Al Sparks and Ted Whiting. In all, more than 130 of O'Hagan's works were published during his long career, which began during his teen years and ended in 1967 with the publication of "God bless Australia" (to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda"), although he continued to write music into the 1980s. He was appointed a Member of the British Empire in 1973 for music composing. O'Hagan died in Melbourne in 1987.